Prelude: John Mueller 1995 statement concerning
Retrospection Bias
“... no matter how much better the present gets, the
past gets better faster..."
Golden ages "...do happen, but we are never actually
in them: they are always back there somewhere.”

Old, but relevant, critiques of the mainstreamThe Law of Returns Under Competitive Conditions,
Piero Sraffa. Sraffa makes an early case against marginalist theories of the
firm based on their observed behavior, particularly their use of spare capacity
and absence of increasing marginal costs.

Economic Philosophy, Joan Robinson.
Gives an overview of economic thought, showing how it is almost always
impossibly intertwined with ideology.

IS/LM: an explanation, John Hicks. The
creator of IS/LM critiques IS/LM, based largely on the confusion surrounding
Keynes’ use of ‘uncertainty’.

Modern critiques

What Is Neoclassical Economics?, Yanis
Varoufakis and Christian Arsnberger. The article that was set for our first
reading group, this tries to define neoclassical economics rigorously.

Progress and Poverty, Henry George.
Regarded by himself and his followers as the ultimate solution, this book
outlines the role land plays in extracting economic rent, making the economy
less productive and producing poverty.

The Worldly Philosophers, Robert L
Heilbroner. The classic text for the history of thought, that should need no
introduction. Sketches out the development of economic thought from Adam Smith
through Karl Marx to neoclassical economists and Keynes.

Adam’s Fallacy: A Guide to Economic Theology,
Duncan Foley. Has the same theme as above, but also traces the history of the
idea that the economic sphere is a separate, ‘natural’ phenomenon with which we
cannot interfere. An excellent introduction to the history of thought from a
heterodox perspective.

Marxism

Reclaiming Marx’s Capital: A Refutation of the Myth of
Inconsistency by Andrew Kliman. An excellent and
simple exposition of the labour theory of value. Mathematical, but mostly just
tables and arithmetic, and clears up the confusion. Aims to show that the labour
theory of value is a coherent, valid theory, though it makes no attempt to
discern whether it is correct.

Organisations and Markets, Herbert
Simon argues that organisations – firms, governments, unions and so forth – are
really the dominant way resources are allocated in society, and that economics
should shift away from its focus on markets to reflect this.

Anthropology

Debt: the First 5000 Years, David
Graeber. Graeber outlines what he calls the “myth of barter”, stated by many
economics textbooks, which argues that money arose because it helped people
exchange cows and chickens more easily. He shows that this is not borne out by
the historical record: historically, societies have engaged in ‘trade’ through
credit relations.

“No
One Saw This Coming“, Dirk J Bezemer. Notes the 11
economists who made sound predictions of when the financial crisis would happen
and how it would happen.

Whoops!, John Lanchester. The most
readable introduction to the financial crisis, written by a journalist. Great if
you can’t separate your AIGs from your CDOs.

Au

ECONNED, Yves Smith. Probably the best
book on ‘what happened’ the financial crisis, and also links in the role of
economic theories.

The Debt-Deflation Theory of Great Depressions,
Irving Fisher. Short outline of how an indebted economy can suffer from
prolonged deflationary depressions, written by Fisher after his faith was shaken
in the 1929 stock market crash. Relevant to the recent crisis.

Other Sciences on Economics

Economyths, David Orrell. An Applied
mathematician takes his toolkit to mainstream economics. Highly readable and a
great introduction to the dynamic thinking used in many natural sciences.

Kicking Away the Ladder, Ha-Joon Chang.
Dr Chang, who spoke in our first guest lecture, discusses the rich countries’
use of industrial policy during their development phase, and their subsequent
dismissal of the policy for currently poor countries.

Bad Samaritans, Ha-Joon Chang. The
follow up to the above, this is more polemic and looks at the interests and
institutions behind ‘free trade’ deals. Contains resposnes to critics of KAtL
(such as Easterly above).